openDemocracy is partnering with the World Forum for Democracy 2016, to draw inspiration from a wide range of innovative grassroots and political initiatives worldwide, and kick-start the debate on what education can do for democracy and what democracy can do for education.

Democracies contain a promise of equitable education opportunities. But social divides persist, and are even growing worldwide. Is education fulfilling its democratic mission or is it failing to build the key qualities for democratic citizenship? How can education not only preach but also practice democracy, nurturing active citizens with critical and analytical skills? How can teachers, learners, families, civil society organisations, public authorities, and the media foster this?

Since November's World Forum for Democracy 2016, openDemocracy has been exploring how
education can rebuild democracy in a world of deepening inequalities. This week, we brought our latest evidence together.

We revisit the social start-up that
gives refugees access to higher education, meeting a 24 yr.old Syrian beneficiary and a Kiron
co-founder, both of whom’s future plans build on this ingenious scheme.
Interview.

Almost three years of war in eastern Ukraine have left their mark on the region’s education services. Without a resolution to the conflict in sight, the uncertainty means that many students in occupied territories can’t plan their futures. RU

Since November's World Forum for Democracy 2016, openDemocracy has been exploring how
education can rebuild democracy in a world of deepening inequalities. This week, we brought our latest evidence together.

We revisit the social start-up that
gives refugees access to higher education, meeting a 24 yr.old Syrian beneficiary and a Kiron
co-founder, both of whom’s future plans build on this ingenious scheme.
Interview.

Neither
the MENA governments nor the international community can afford to let the
region’s young down. It is time to effect change to give
MENA youth what they really need to succeed: jobs above all else.

Global Citizenship Education is a complex
undertaking, encompassing IT-literacy and the promotion of peace and diversity.
It suggests a deep overhaul of our ways of thinking, teaching, and looking at
the world.

This is not a project that one racial group can claim
sole custodianship over. It is a concerted effort to bring into dialogue, and
even contestation, locally-theorised knowledge from Africa with knowledge from
across continents.

UK political
developments over the last twenty years have seen a growing acceptance of the
idea of comprehensive education. But that acceptance of non-selective schools
is based on a profound, hostile rejection of progressive ideas.

Rooted in the philosophy of Paulo Freire, ‘development education’ offers
a critical point of resistance to the gross socio-economic inequality which
fed the divisions of the UK’s EU referendum and US presidential election.

Strangely, although nationalism is a pervasive social phenomenon with
immense effects everywhere in the world, it’s not a central preoccupation of
sociology or any of the dominant social science disciplines. Interview.

“Universality is key to sustainability and to
acceptability of programmes of this kind. Universal support also reflects
our strong belief that parenting skills are not innate and all parents need
support.”

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